Separation and purification of structurally similar olefin/paraffin/alkyne mixtures are vital important processes in chemical industry. Light hydrocarbons have similar physical and chemical properties

and only have minor difference in carbon number and degrees of unsaturation. Traditional cryogenic distillation usually exhibit low selectivity for structurally-related hydrocarbons and thus are energy-intensive processes. The diversity and designability of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)/porous coordination polymers (PCPs) makes them can recognize the minor difference of different hydrocarbon molecules. Therefore

many significant progresses have been made in hydrocarbon separation with microporous MOFs as novel adsorbents. In this review

the recent progresses of MOFs in the adsorptive separation of olefin/paraffin/alkyne mixtures (C2 and C3) were systematically summarized. Additionally

the current problems and the future research directions to address challenges in the field of separation of light hydrocarbons with MOFs were discussed.